15 Brotherhood Peaceful Protests in Alexandria Against Ganzouri Government

As Egyptian youths organize a series of increasingly sizable and vocal marches and protests, the stage is set for more action to pressure or persuade the ruling military to relinquish power to elected civilians.

The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Egypt’s seaport city of Alexandria organized, on Thursday evening, more than 15 peaceful protest ‘gatherings’ in various public squares of the province, part of a campaign launched by the Brotherhood under the slogan "Step Down Honorably", which aims to bring down the government and expedite power handover in order to and save Egypt from the perils of the transitional phase.

Several members of the Brotherhood’s Administrative Office in the city took part in the protests, as well as members of the Freedom and Justice Party secretariat and representatives of its parliamentary bloc in the governorate.

While approximately 30 thousand Alexandria residents participated in protests, large numbers of MB women joined the popular demonstrations. In fact, the proportion of women participating in those protests in the city’s various squares was doubled, particularly in dense urban neighborhoods.

MB youths also distributed nearly half a million statements signed by the Brotherhood, accusing the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) of collusion and masterminding the numerous manufactured crises triggered by the government.

Moreover, participants taking part in the protests chanted a number of slogans, including: "Down Down with military rule" and "NO NO to Crisis Cabinet.. NO to Ganzouri Government". They also raised the flags of Egypt, together with banners, some of which saying: "O SCAF, Dream no Dreams; Back to Barracks; Homeland NOT for Sale" and "SCAF said Sovereign Cabinet; Reserved for Robbers; Cause NOT for Sale; Martyrs’ Rights Never Forgotten; You slaughter your own people; The people will revolt again".

For his part, Dr. Hamdi Hassan, media spokesman of the "Step Down Honorably" campaign said, “We launched the campaign to hold more than 15 protests in the public parks and squares of Alexandria”, adding that the MB has also organized a number of marches and demonstrations to be held in the coming days in front of the Cabinet building in Alexandria and also in front of the Library of Alexandria (Bibliotheca Alexandrina), as well as other events which will grow every day until the government is removed and the power is handed over to elected civilians”.

Meanwhile, Anas Al-Qadi, the general coordinator of the campaign and a cadre of the MB’s youth in Alexandria, said, “SCAF must recognize that thousands of young people from the Muslim Brotherhood are ready to awaken the revolution afresh and will not be intimidated by SCAF threats.

“As this protest campaign sees a high participation of youth, the MB is going to announce a number of different youth events in Alexandria to increase the pressure, to demand dismissal of the Ganzouri Cabinet and to persuade SCAF to stop interfering in the Constituent Assembly and to hand over power without any special privileges in the Constitution”, Al-Qadi added.